The Boston Phoenix
March 2 - 9, 2000

[Features]

Media

Heading for the exits at CNC

by Dan Kennedy

The folks from Fidelity's Community Newspaper Company (CNC) were whooping and hollering at the New England Press Association's awards dinner, held February 12 at the Park Plaza. The 103-newspaper chain did very well indeed -- winning 170 of the 225 awards, according to its own press release -- and thus achieved a measure of validation for a company that's been beset by shaky finances, layoffs, and criticism from community leaders (see "Don't Quote Me," News and Features, February 4).

But rather than a new beginning, the NEPA dinner turned out to be something of a valedictory for CNC. The steady trickling out of talent has recently become a flood -- especially in the Metro Unit, which includes some of CNC's most widely read weekly papers, such as the Cambridge Chronicle, the Cambridge Tab, the Somerville Journal, the Boston Tab, the Allston/Brighton Tab, the Newton Tab, the Brookline Tab, and the Watertown Tab & Press. Bob Unger, the Metro Unit's editor-in-chief, announced he was leaving, as did both of the managing editors who reported to him, DeWayne Lehman (who ran the urban papers) and Tommy Peterson (who managed the suburban papers). Also leaving is Tamara Wieder, arts editor of the Tab papers, as well as a number of other staffers, including Kirk LeMessurier, editor of the Brookline Tab; Brian Hannon, editor of the Allston/Brighton Tab; and Maria Buckley, editor of the Needham Tab. Earlier this year, Metro Unit publisher Carole Brennan quit to take a job as Mayor Tom Menino's spokeswoman; Sean Burke, who had been the advertising manager in CNC's western suburbs, has been promoted to take her place.

"It's a vicious cycle -- the more people leave, the worse morale gets," says one departing staff member. "It's hard working someplace where people are constantly quitting." Adds Boston Herald arts editor Greg Reibman, who preceded Wieder as the Tab papers' arts editor: "It shows a real lack of confidence in the company. When you look at what's happened to this once-proud newspaper group, it's really a tragedy. They're losing the most important asset they have, which is collective memory."

Unger, though, insists that things are not as bleak as all that. He notes that CNC -- like many newspaper companies -- is being raided by other media organizations with more money to pay their employees. Unger is leaving to become executive editor and vice-president of the Centre Daily Times, a Knight-Ridder paper in State College, Pennsylvania -- clearly a step up. Lehman and Peterson are both going to Computerworld, in Framingham, a publication that pays far more than community newspapers do, regardless of ownership.

Unger also credits CNC management with turning the company around financially in the last year, but admits that the layoffs needed to accomplish that have been bad for morale: "It was a good move for the company long-term, but short-term, I think, it's hard on the psyche."